What's Left Behind
by crazysmile15
Summary: Time was a thief, time was a crook, and it took what was not easily given, what should not be taken away. But if their was one thing Sesshoumaru knew, life was better than death." SesshouKago pairing, please review!


**~What's Left Behind~**

**By Crazysmile15/ViNtAgE-vErVe**

_Life! We've been long together,_

_Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;_

'_Tis hard to part when friends are dear;_

_Perhaps' t will cost a sigh, a tear;_

_Then steal away, give little warning;_

_Choose thine own time;  
Say not Good night, but in some brighter clime_

_Bid me Good morning. _

(Life by Anna Laetitia Barbauld)

With time things healed, bloomed, flourished, than died. One moment life was beating in your chest, the next you we're grasping for life, like a child clutching at its blanket. You disintegrated into the ground, the next generations marching on through the decaying ashes of your life. There was no limit to time, no one ruler, and no one flow to its never ending destination. Time was strict, but could also be breezy and uncertain. Everyone always believed they had time, or we're complaining they didn't have enough of it, begging for five more minutes in the morning, or pleading with time to move faster. As much as people wished for more or less, time would eventually catch up with them, everyone smelled like death. From the moment humans exited the womb, a faint smell would coat their soft, pudgy skin. A subtle warning that time was already keeping tract of its life, steadily creeping into ever pore, until death was knocking at your door.

Time kept a tab on every living creature, no one was above time, nor was any one below it. Time waited for no one, and no one waited for time. Death was a pungent smell, like the odor of aging wood, creaking louder as you neared your time. No matter how much you tried to hide the scent, no matter how much you paid to cover its tracts, it still hung heavily among the human population. Time was a thief. It crept into the cradles of babes, and stole their innocence. It withered the strongest of men, until they we're hunched over and decrepit. Women feared its effects, lathering their faces with products, products that made false promises and robbed them of their hope.

Sesshoumaru only feared one thing in life, time. Time he could not get back, time he kept on wasting, time slipping through his tightly fisted hands. He feared a foe which had no face discernable to the eye, could not be tract down by the finest nose, nor could it be heard by the living. How could he fight back when time had all the weapons, knew every weakness, and every outcome? Time would take away the most important thing in his life, a piece of his heart he had not thought time could heal. He had lived for centuries, fought in many battles, had been schooled by the best scholars, and still he could not grasp nor could he contemplate a world without Kagome. Their could be no world without his mate. After so many loses in his life, could he not win this once? They had both lost many to the war against Naraku. His beloved ward, Rin. His half brother, Inuyasha, who he had come to consider whole. The perverted monk, Miroku, who had finally lost the battle against the cursed wind tunnel on his palm. Sango, the demon slayer, who had given her life to save her younger brother. Even the loss of his mother and father could be endured as long as Kagome we're to live forever by his side, to surpass the bonds of time.

He could not, would not permit his time with Kagome to be tarnished. At least with time they had grown to love and heal each other. Kagome had become his mate, his lover, his woman, but most of all his friend. Something he had not had for the longest time, his entire life had been devoted to time. Letting the world slowly trickle away, watching as his opponents fell in battle, and his world steadily grow dimmer. Time was no longer welcome in his world, vanquishing it would become his ultimate goal. But death would come eventually; even now Kagome's scent was polluted with the aroma of death. Time was keeping up a steady beat next to Kagome, a race she would surely lose.

So Sesshoumaru did his best to obliterate the fragrance of death, snuffing it out in anyway possible. Rubbing his scent into every pore on her lithe body, creating the semblance that death was not near, not dragging its nails against the windows, and fogging up the glass. At night, Sesshoumaru would hold her tightly to his chest, cursing the gods for making him love a human. Cursing the moon for bathing her in its ethereal glow, cursing the stars for brightly shining in her eyes, and cursing himself for not being able to stop himself from crushing her to his body, hungrily devouring her body, and chipping away at her purity until it lay at his feet in fragments and shards. When would time cease its incessant ticking, when would it cease to exist, and when would he learn to accept Kagome's fate like she had, and move onwards. Even she knew one day time would rip her away from his side, and place her above the heavens, a place Sesshoumaru could not reach.

Time was a thief, time was a crook, and it took what was not easily given, what should not be taken away. But if their was one thing Sesshoumaru knew, life was better than death, and the life forming in Kagome stomach would beat the test of time, even if she didn't. But for now, he was just happy enough to hold life in his hands, and ignore the already oncoming scent of death.

_We watch'd her breathing through the night,_

_Her breathing soft and low, _

_As in her breast the wave of life_

_Kept heaving to and fro. _

(The Death Bed by Thomas Hood)

**~The End~**__


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